In a recent online discussion of some FV issues — of which I apparently cannot get enough — I was asked about the difference between what I call the amber ales and the oatmeal stouts. There is not a monolithic FV position on everything and, not surprisingly, there are differences of emphasis throughout the movement, …
Smells Kind of Musty
I recommend this post by Justin Taylor, in which he summarizes a blogospheric debate over antinomianism. Read the whole thing. Jason Hood of CT Online began it by leaning against the notion that accusations of antinomianism are a good litmus test for whether or not you are preaching the gospel of real grace. He is …
No Root in Himself
One of the reasons why we talk past each other on the question of apostasy is that we succumb to the common mistake of choosing which verses are the “clear” ones. A hermeneutical rule of thumb (quite a good one, I should add) is that unclear verses should be interpreted in the light of the …
Regular Wine That Got Here Remarkably
When Jesus is teaching Nicodemus about the absolute necessity of the new birth, Nicodemus does not understand what He is talking about. In response to that bafflement, Jesus says this: If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things (John 3:12)? Catch …
Your Doctrine is Too Small
J.B. Phillips famously wrote the book Your God is Too Small, and I would like to do a little riff off of that. Your doctrine is too small. What is that supposed to mean? Often particular doctrines are set forth in a way that contains enough of the truth to annoy unreasonable people and not …
A World Made New
If we hear a word enough, we think we know what it means. We live in a Christian sub-culture that has strongly emphasized the need to be “born again.” Without denying this need for regeneration at all, we still have to place the reality of this in a biblical context, lest we turn it into …
Personal Antithesis
Many theological problems are created by turning certain issues into theological problems. As Yogi Berra might have said. One of the central sticking issues in the Federal Vision stuff is the question of personal regeneration. But this is only a problem because we are dealing with it on the blackboard, as a theological problem involving …
Theological Tool Words
Some are troubled by the idea of definitive justification at the beginning of our Christian lives and another eschatological “justification” at the end of history. They are right to be wary about any attempt to smuggle autonomous works into the equation, but wrong in not realizing that eternity/time transactions cannot always be tidily represented on …
Creedal Language
We are not engaged in a fight to recover biblical language simpliciter, but rather in a fight to recover the right to use biblical language when necessary. The vocabulary of historic liturgies, systematics, the creeds, and so on are also most necessary, and we should have no interest in ditching them unless absolutely necessary. Our …
A Father Forever
In the Bible, personal identity is not primarily a question of some substance inside a man. But each man still has a nature, inherited from his father. So ontology is not a philosophical problem in the Bible, but rather a problem of generation. And when this generation is sinful, the only solution to the problem …